SUBSCRIBE:
Colleagues who want to subscribe can do so for free here online.

NOTE: Make sure you enable images to see this e-bulletin properly.

Q&A: TV ON THE RADIO
Announced last year, TV On The Radio will headline and curate the latest ATP festivals next month. Also featuring artists including De La Soul, Death Grips and Thee Oh Sees, it will, it turns out, be one of the last of ATP's holiday camp-based festivals. Ahead of his weekend in Pontins, CMU's Andy Malt spoke to Adebimpe about the festival, the band's new material and navigating the modern music industrymore>>

APPROVED: NICHOLAS JAAR'S BOILER ROOM NYC MIX
Nicolas Jaar span a 45 minute set at the Boiler Room in NYC back in March, DJing last at a take-over of the space by his Clown & Sunset label. Like Jaar's 2011 LP 'Space Is Only Noise' in that its appeal is fairly universal - as in, you don't have to like house to like it - it's a non-showy narrative arc, minimalist and varying in its slight inclines/declines in pace (and bass) more>>

[PIAS] COOPERATIVE - UK LABEL MANAGER
[PIAS] Cooperative, a division of the [PIAS] Music Group, are looking for a dynamic and knowledgeable UK label manager. This is an ideal position for someone with experience in label management, marketing, retail, and production. The successful candidate will approach the business with an independent mind, ambition and drive.

For more information including a full job description and how to apply click here.

And if you thought the criminal trial of Conrad Murray was dramatic, wait until you see this one. Because various aspects of Michael Jackson's former life, his drug dependencies and doctor shopping, and what exactly the people around him knew, all topics deemed off-limits in the criminal courts, are likely to be delved into here as the Jackson family attempt to convince a jury that live music giant AEG is liable for the 2009 death of the late king of pop.

AEG Live, the Jacksons' lawyers will say, is run by ruthless businessmen who in 2009 ignored Michael Jackson's obvious health problems so to push ahead with and cash-in to the max on the 'This Is It' touring venture, putting unreasonable pressure on the doctor caring for the star to do whatever it took to ensure the talent could perform, a doctor hired by the live giant without it even undertaking basic checks regards his credentials.

But Michael Jackson, AEG will counter, was a flawed human being with some dark secrets, whose drug dependencies were only fully known by the few, his regular doctor shopping meaning even those who provided him with prescription medication didn't really know the level at which he consumed them. On the brink financially, Jackson may well have over-committed with the This Is it project, in desperate need of the monies it could generate, but so good was he at hiding his flagging health AEG could not have known this. They could only take guidance from Murray, the medic Jackson himself chose, hired and managed.

And so we have the basic arguments of the two sides; both of whom seem willing to be brutal in court as they fight their respective cases. For the jury the main question is this: did AEG hire and manage Dr Conrad Murray, the doctor the criminal courts convicted for causing Michael Jackson's death through negligent treatment? The company ultimately paid his bills, but who controlled the negligent doc - the 'This Is It' promoter or Jackson himself?

Yesterday, as the jury who will hear the case took their seats for the first time, legal reps for both parties delivered their opening remarks. And doing their bit to ensure this case will be full of melodrama - even if the TV cameras have been kept outside - the Jackson family's reps began by playing a song Jackson wrote about his three children with the title 'You Are My Life' and, according to CNN, the lines, "You are the sun, you make me shine more like the stars that twinkle at night, you are the moon that glows in my heart". AEG's actions didn't just deprive the world of a great popstar, Team Jackson wanted the court room to know, they deprived three children of their father.

Jackson rep Brian Panish then quickly got about the business of portraying AEG bosses as the sinister characters of the piece, driven by profits at all costs. "There will be no question in your mind that they were ruthless", Panish told the jury. "And they wanted to be number one at all cost".

Team Jackson then pulled out what they consider to be the smoking gun of the case, the email from AEG Live exec Paul Gongaware to 'This Is It' show director Kenny Ortega written eleven days before Jackson's death, in which he writes: "We want to remind [Murray] that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want to remind him what is expected of him".

Gongaware says he doesn't remember writing the email, but to Jackson's legal team those two sentences prove that AEG did control Murray, despite claims it did not, and more than that, the company put pressure on him to do whatever was necessary to enable Jackson to perform. Panish: "They put Dr Murray in a position where if he said Michael can't go or can't play, if he said I can't give you those drugs, then he doesn't get paid".

Gongaware was also key to the Jackson team's pre-emptive strike regarding AEG's claims of ignorance of the singer's health problems. The AEG man had worked with Jackson before, Panish said, and knew the singer was already reliant on addictive opiates while touring in the 1990s. He'd been warned by a doctor about the risks of Jackson's dependencies as early as 1993, Panish added, so why did he not think to investigate what the situation was in 2009?

But "the truth is Mr Jackson fooled everyone", said Marvin Putnam, opening for AEG. "He kept those who might have helped him at a distance and no one knew his deepest, darkest secret", ie his dangerous dependency on prescription drugs. Even Jackson family members didn't know of the scale of their most famous sibling's drug consumption, Putnam added, and "if they didn't know what was going on, how could someone else think there was even a problem?" AEG had no idea, he insisted.

Jackson himself made the decisions that led to his premature demise, Putnam went on. "This case is about personal choices. People have responsibility for their personal choices. It was not a tragedy of AEG Live's making". AEG did not manage Murray in any way, he continued, wheeling out his side's key quote, from one of the medic's early police interviews, in which he clarifies: "I am an employee for Michael Jackson but paid through AEG". The doctor himself confirmed, Putnam said, AEG's argument that it did not control the medic's treatment of the star.

Moving forward, it will be necessary to reveal in detail in court Jackson's drug dependencies Putnam continued, possibly for the benefit of the Jacksons in the courtroom, who might regret - the implication seemed to be - pursuing this case, given the damage it is likely to do to their late son, father and brother's reputation. And that will mean considering the impact the unsuccessful child abuse allegations made against the star had on those drug dependencies, and investigating the 40 doctors and nurses Team AEG say the singer had sought drugs from to satisfy his appetite.

So, expect plenty of juicy revelations as we go.

In addition to laying out the basic opening arguments, some time was spent on day one of the trial considering what evidence can be presented regarding any damages claim the Jacksons might make if successful in the court battle. The Jackson family's legal reps denied those widely reported claims that their clients would push for damages of $40 billion, though admitted any claim would run into billions.

The testimony of accountant Arthur Erk will be used to back up any damages claim, though AEG has already said his assumptions about the live activity and new business ventures Jackson may have successfully pursued had he lived are wildly unrealistic, ignoring the impact Jackson's health would have had on his ability to tour worldwide, and the fact the singer's reputation remained tarnished up to his death. And also, presumably, the fact Jackson burned through cash himself, and may have spent much of his 'This Is It' earnings very fast indeed.

And so the case continues. Despite an all-star witness list being promised, today will begin with the more serious business of questioning the LAPD detective who led the investigation into Jackson's demise, Orlando Martinez.

TLC ANNOUNCE FESTIVAL SHOW
TLC - aka Tionne 'T-Boz' Watkins and Rozonda 'Chilli' Thomas - have confirmed they will play together again later this year, with their first confirmed reunion show being at the pop-themed American music festival Mixtape in late July. The event is sponsored by VH1, which is also currently making a biopic about the R&B group, in which the trio's two surviving members are involved.

When the Tupac hologram appeared alongside Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg at Coachella last year there was speculation that TLC might use the same technology to include footage of their late former bandmate Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes in any future live shows. Although that's not currently formally part of the plan, T-Boz didn't rule it out when asked about such a thing in a recent Huffington Post interview.

She said: "We're trying to work out to see if we can really deal with that. You have to stand next to that person and you know she's not there, and that's really emotional... It's easy for people on the outside to say 'that would be dope' ... but emotionally I don't know".

NEW ONE DIRECTION ALBUM WILL BE AVAILABLE BY CHRISTMAS
One Direction, the boyband's Louis Tomlinson claims, will giftwrap and release their third (third!) LP in time for Christmas.

It's like he was saying to the Daily Star the other day: "We've already started recording the album, we started about a month ago. We've been writing and recording it while on tour. We are really happy with it. We don't want to rush it but it will be out for Christmas".

KANYE WEST LP "DONE" AND "DARK", SAYS SPECULATIVE DJ
Apparently, Kanye West's new LP - the heir apparent to 2010's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' - is "done", the final edit having apparently been played to label execs at a Def Jam listening party last week.

Peter Rosenburg, a DJ at NYC-based station Hot 97, wasn't present at the playback, but said live on air that he'd heard the TBA disc was "dark but really good". So that isn't a lot to go on, but still... it's a start.

BOARDS OF CANADA ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM
I'm sure you're all aware of the hints that have been dropped lately that Boards Of Canada are planning to release a new album, their first since 2005? The lone record released for Record Store Day featuring 20 seconds of music, the second such release that followed later, the mysterious numbers, and all of that. Well now they've announced it, so that's that.

The final clue came yesterday when someone 'discovered' that the series of six digit numbers that had been doing the rounds - on the two 20 second records that emerged, as well as from other sources - unlocked a website giving access to a lengthy, abstract video and (eventually) a pre-order link for the new album.

Anyway - skip to the end - the album is called 'Tomorrow's Harvest', it's out on 10 Jun via Warp, and this is its tracklist:

SAVAGES STREAM LP
Savages have granted us all an early playback of their first LP, 'Silence Yourself', as features 'Shut Up', 'Husbands' and 'She Will' - all the hits - and will be released for real on 6 May.

DIE ANTWOORD TO PLAY THEMSELVES IN SCI-FI FILM
South African 'zef rap' outfit Die Antwoord are going to appear as themselves in a new sci-fi film by Neill Blomkamp, who directed 'District 9'. Shooting on 'Chappie', as it's titled, will start in Johannesburg later this year, with a budget of $50 million.

Meanwhile, speaking to South African newspaper Die Burger, Die Antwoord rapper Ninja gave a detailed rundown of the group's diary, explaining that after a European tour in June and July they "will do very nice shopping in Milan and Paris and hard partying in Switzerland and Moscow. And then we start working on 'Chappie'". He added that they are also set to release their third album next February, with plans for single releases in May and August.

So that's quite a lot to be getting on with in the coming months. Before all that gets underway, this is the NSFW video made for Die Antwoord's 2012 track 'Baby's On Fire', as features (via Bleeding Cool) the clairvoyant line "Neill Blomkamp's making me a movie star".

BEASTIE BOYS TO WRITE MEMOIR
Beastie Boys Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz are to write a "multi-dimensional" autobiography for publication in late 2015, the New York Times reports. The book, set to be published in the US by Random House subsidiary Spiegel & Grau, will be edited by hip hop journalist Sacha Jenkins with contributions from other writers, which will apparently give it a similar feel to the group's now defunct Grand Royal magazine.

Spiegel & Grau's Julie Grau told the paper: "[Diamond and Horovitz are] interested in challenging the form and making the book a multidimensional experience. There is a kaleidoscopic frame of reference, and it asks a reader to keep up".

Luke Janlow of the duo's agents Janklow & Nesbit said: "After Yauch died, I didn't push them, but I think that Adam and Mike ended up realising that it was the right time for them. [Though] the first words out of Mike's mouth were, 'I don't want to do a straight memoir'".

BABYSHAMBLES SET SEPTEMBER DATES
Peter Doherty's Babyshambles say they're starting a tour in September, which doesn't - given past no-shows and dramas - necessarily mean they will. Though they generally show up for gigs these days, right? Well, let's hope so, as you take a glance over the dates:

FESTIVAL LINE-UP UPDATE: READING & LEEDS, HARD ROCK CALLING, EXIT AND MORE
Ah, festivals, what a lark. 'But what of the real nitty gritty intricacies of their line-ups?', I hear you scream. Well, we have that all listed and itemised below, starting with The Prodigy, who'll headline their so-called Warriors' Gathering, a festival-within-a-festival at Serbia's EXIT.

"EXIT has a crazy wild side that only very few festivals have. We fukin luv it", scream the band (what's with all the screaming today?), adding this: "Come on!"

What else. Super duper Swedish fest Øya has enhanced its already pretty great artist bank (Slayer, The Knife, Kraftwerk and the like) via a set of new additions, namely Cat Power, Grimes, Steve Mason and Laura Mvula. Oh, and then back in Britain we have the ever-acquisitive Reading and Leeds, who've affixed an extra page of add-ons (Angel Haze, Ghostpoet, Action Bronson, Ms Dynamite) to their matching programmes.

Similarly, Hard Rock Calling has been busying itself with the business of lengthening its listings, booking Dark Horses, Deaf Havana and others alongside its previously announced stars, Bruce Springsteen, Kasabian, Paul Weller, Miles Kane and Alabama Shakes.

This is Olympic cyclist and 'mod' Bradley Wiggins, an authority on all-things Hard Rock (I think because the event has moved to the Olympic Park this year), saying things about it: "Having the Olympics in London last summer was incredible, and it's great to hear that the Olympic Park will be hosting such a high profile music event this year. Having some of the world's greatest artists including Bruce Springsteen, Kasabian and Paul Weller perform there is a great way to show the versatility of this brilliantly designed space. It will be a fantastic event".

Ta for that, Brad. And that's only a basic summary, with today's full FLUU surprises as here listed:

TIMBERLAKE ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH MASTERCARD
Justin Timberlake has announced a new brand partnership with MasterCard, him being a long-term advocate of debt. The deal will kick of this weekend with an exclusive show in New York for MasterCard customers (not all of them, they'll have to apply for tickets), with other events, experiences, co-created content and "consumer engagement opportunities" planned. And to think, pop stars used to have to make do writing and performing pop songs; pity the 1980s pop act who never got to participate in a consumer engagement opportunity.

Said Timberlake: "I'm thrilled to be a part of a collaboration that offers me the opportunity to connect and engage with fans and bring them closer to the music. MasterCard is a respected global brand and I look forward to working with them to bring something truly unique to their cardholders".

While the man from MasterCard, CMO Alfredo Gangotena, added: "When people think about access to music and entertainment, we want them to think of MasterCard. We've had a role in this space for some time but are now looking to really put a stake in the ground and we're doing so by tapping into one of the most prominent global entertainment and business minds, Justin Timberlake. We've got some amazing things up our sleeves and know that cardholders and fans will be thrilled".

Which is all very exciting. I mean, imagine if Justin can do for MasterCard what he achieved for MySpace.

NEW CEO FOR SHAZAM
Shazam has hired Rich Riley, formerly of Yahoo!, to be its new CEO, with the content identification technology company's incumbent boss Andrew Fisher becoming Executive Chairman. The rejig at the top follows the recent appointment of former BBC digital man Daniel Danker to the role of Chief Product Officer, and seems to be part of a plan to enable further expansion and, down the line, an IPO.

Says Fisher: "I couldn't be more pleased to welcome Rich Riley as Shazam's new Chief Executive Officer. Rich brings a tremendous amount of experience both as an internet executive where he has rapidly scaled global businesses, to establishing strategic relationships with advertisers and partners, as well as his entrepreneurial approach and skills".

He added: "Whilst Rich will run our business I will now spend more time focusing on our corporate development and future strategy including our ambitions to deliver a successful IPO for our shareholders as we look to become an increasingly important part of people's everyday lives, helping them engage with content and brands in the most efficient way possible".

RADIO 1 BOSS TO CHAIR RADIO ACADEMY
Radio industry trade group the Radio Academy has announced that Radio 1 boss Ben Cooper will be its next Chairman, taking over from Global Radio chief Ashley Tabor. The Chairman job at the Academy comes up for renewal every two years.

Confirming Cooper's appointment to the job, the Academy's Acting General Manager Mandy O'Connor told reporters: "We're delighted that Ben Cooper has been appointed Chair of The Radio Academy and we look forward to working with him over his tenure. The Academy would also like to express our sincere thanks and appreciation to Ashley Tabor for his leadership and passion over the past two years. He leaves the Academy in a much stronger position than ever before".

Ben Cooper added: "I am delighted to be leading The Radio Academy - it is the only place where the whole of the UK radio industry comes together to celebrate and champion the medium we love".

DANNY BROWN KEEPS RAPPING DESPITE SOME SPECIAL ATTENTION FROM A FAN
American rapper Danny Brown has bragged on Twitter how he didn't "miss a bar" despite getting a blowjob from a fan live on stage at a gig in Minneapolis this weekend. Yeah, you read that right - see, Bieber's weed smoking, stun gunning, tantrum throwing and monkey smuggling all seems charmingly childlike now doesn't it?

Recounts a gig-goer a little too close for comfort to the fellatio to Soundisstyle: "I was near the front row and all night Danny had been going up to the crowd and having random girls touch his dick through his pants. Then this girl in front of me starts flashing him and he goes up to her and grabs her tits. Then all of a sudden gets up close, pulls his shirt up a little and she starts blowing him"

Lovely. Brown's online bragging came in response to fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar asking "u really just got the head on stage stanny???", to which Brown responded "and didn't miss one bar bruh bruh".

CMU Editor Andy Malt and CMU Business Editor Chris Cooke are both available to comment on music and music business stories. Together they have provided comment and contributions to BBC News, BBC World, BBC Radios 4, 5, 6music and Scotland, Sky News, CNN, Wired and the Associated Press. Email andy@unlimitedmedia.co.uk or chris@unlimitedmedia.co.uk.

UnLimited Media also provides creative, training and consulting services for the music, media and communication industries. More at www.unlimitedmedia.co.uk.